John Cooke's Journal

John Cooke's Journal 14 response





10/12/1621/

  This place is horrible to live in. The New England coast is cold. We can barley plant anything. I'm sure that if we didn't send fish, wood, and so on to England we would die! A couple days ago we met a tall Indian named "Samoset."

  Later he came with many more Indians and a man with great power "Massasoit."There was a man who knew very well English we named"Squanto." Right now he's being taken to England. Earlier today "John Carver" our governor took Massasoit to his home to make a peace treaty.

  Squanto was a very useful tool of god. He taught us how to plant corn and to fish. It's a shame that he has to leave to England.

10/20/1621/

  After our bountiful harvest we invited the Indians for a great feast that will last for who knows how long. We're going to call it the 1621 Harvest Celebration. I hope we have harvest's like this all the time.

 

10/24/1621/

  We had elected "William Bradford new governor. For a strange reason John Carver died mysteriously. He made a record of people who arrived on the next ship "Fortune." The rest of my family came on that ship. I was very happy.    

John Cooke Response 15 seth

John Cooke Response 15 seth



1/2/1630/

  Today is horrible. A bunch of Puritans copied our idea and came to New England. I bet I can't throw a stone without hitting a puritan .  The puritans think that they're always right. They hate Quakers. I think they should still respect the people of different fate even if they are dead wrong. But John Winthrop said to us all "We must consider that we shall be as a city on a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us." For a reason I have no idea why they brought a charter from King Charles.

 

1/3/1630/

The charter is giving us a bunch of new rules making life here so much harder. For reasons I don't know they look down on us. I think it's because they want to change the churches. I wonder why they pretend they're perfect?  I mean we did run away from England but look at what they did.

1/4/1630/

  I gotta say there must be hundreds of puritans here. Although complaining doesn't get me anywhere. At least it's better than having people who expect you to go to their church. It's alright that the puritans are reminding me it could be worse.

 Well the light is leaving I should retire.

  

John's journal

John Cooke's journal13 response


11/6/1620

 I'm going to have to leave Holland with my father and go to the New World. I'll miss my friends, mother, and sisters. Although I do have a good feeling about a new place to live. My father says in our new home we can practice our own religion. The church of England is so stubborn with other religions we had to go to Holland, and now we're going to the New world. The crew of the ship is going to follow the map of one of the first people to come. "John Smith." The map looks pretty old but promising.
 
 Dad says that we will be happier in the new land and I hope that he is right. I already miss my home in Leiden, Holland and the ship had just left the dock. My old home is soon to become a fading memory as the sight of it fades in the mist. Right now this trip clearly isn't worth it.    
  
 My living space is aggravatingly small.  I can't even go on the dock and breath air that isn't soaked in seawater.  I feel so trapped down here with the ever rotting stench of the sea. My father has just told me that there are 100 other people on the ship! I'm surprised that 102 people can fit on this ship.
    
 I did also learn that there are some interesting people here. I met a man with the same name as me called John Alden. He is related to the master of the ship Christopher Jones. The other john is the cooper of the ship. I had also met Mary Chilton and she told me that her father was hit in the head with a rock and is in desperate need of medical attention.She says that a year ago she, her sister, and father were caught in an anti armination riot and then and there was where her dad got hit. She's about my age also. The last person I met was Francis Eaton. All his siblings were killed except for his brother when a disease was spread throughout his home. He works as a home carpenter. He has a son named Samuel and a wife named Sarah. That's all the people I met today, and I think that the sun has about left.